Kansas State head coach Ron Prince during the Big 12 teleconference on Monday bristled at a question regarding whether his decision to proceed behind the young arm of true freshman Josh Freeman was a popular decision among the Wildcats. He noted the 6-foot-6, 238-pounder and the most coveted high school signee ever for K-State could "exploit all of the places on the field with his arm."

Coaches don't admit to promising players playing time or starting or anything like that, but how do you walk that fine line whether it's Josh or anybody else you're recruiting to let it be known that there's an opportunity for them out there?

Well, I think one of the things we've tried to at all positions inform the players that when they're ready, we're ready and whether that's in special teams, defense, offense, whatever the circumstance is, we've had a number of players - I think we're up to, I don't know, maybe five or six true freshmen who've started in games or have played significant roles in games so far, we've played a lot of players - and when they're ready and mature and confident in the schemes and the systems we're ready to evaluate their ability to go into the game. That's at every position. You go through all of these things to recruit good players and they don't do you any good just standing on the sideline -- they're just like Christmas tree ornaments if they're just over there next to you. The team doesn't advance when you recruit good players until they're on the field with you. Obviously, there is some training and development that has to go into that to usually get a player on the field.